A year ago Bridgeport lawmakers took steps to reassure immigrants — undocumented and documented — they would be welcome in Connecticut’s largest city, despite President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation efforts.

That included public assurances local police were not immigration enforcers, as well as issuing municipal identification cards that are available to all citizens, but are beneficial to undocumented residents.

So some recent arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents outside of Bridgeport Superior Court on Golden Hill have some in the community — and even Bridgeport’s top cop — particularly troubled.

“It’s hard enough to get immigrants or illegal immigrants to cooperate with the police on certain cases. They’re afraid,” said city Police Chief Armando “A.J.” Perez. “So I don’t want to make it more difficult” by having ICE waiting outside of a courthouse.

Though perhaps a newer development in Bridgeport, such courthouse activity — some of it inside — have for months sparked controversy around the country, with critics alleging ICE’s actions do more harm than good by discouraging immigrant communities from cooperating with local law enforcers.

For example, the Los Angeles Times reported that California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye last year accused ICE agents of “stalking” that state’s court buildings.

Cantil-Sakauye wrote in a letter to the Trump administration: “Courthouses should not be used as bait in the necessary enforcement of our country’s immigration laws. (Such activities) not only compromise our core value of fairness but they undermine the judiciary’s ability to provide equal access to justice.”

“A lot of people come to court — people charged with a crime, also victims, witnesses, people who are involved in civil cases,” said Michael Lawlor, Gov. Dannel Malloy’s undersecretary for criminal justice policy and planning. “If people become afraid to come to court it’s going to be very difficult to convict guilty people if witnesses and victims don’t show up.

Chased down

State Rep. Christopher Rosario, D-Bridgeport, was troubled by a recent Hearst Connecticut Media account of ICE agents operating outside of Bridgeport Superior Court and that a reporter witnessed Perez’s officers provide some assistance.

Rosario was referring to a Hearst report about Edwin Silva-Caceres who, according to ICE’s New England Region office in Boston, is a Honduran foreign national with a previous outstanding order for final removal from an immigration judge. Silva-Caceres was picked up outside of Superior Court on Golden Hill after a hearing on assault charges.

When ICE confronted Silva-Caceres, he fled the scene, followed by ICE agents and a couple of city cops who were also at the courthouse. Silva-Caceres was caught a few blocks away. It was not clear if Bridgeport police pursued him the entire time.

“It (the newspaper report) insinuated that local police helped in apprehending the gentleman,” Rosario said. He suggested that violated the “welcoming city” resolution the City Council passed last May that stated the Bridgeport police department “does not, and will not, act as an arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”

Perez said he only learned about the situation after the fact and said he wants to know when ICE is in Bridgeport.

“I didn’t know that our officers got involved. If ICE or anybody requested assistance, of course they’re obligated to help,” Perez said, adding he has since learned the federal agents “were not here looking for the guy who stands on the corner looking for work. They were looking for criminals.”

ICE’s website defends courthouse arrests, saying they are: Legal — people are being arrested in a public place based upon probable cause; targeted against “specific aliens”; and a safe way to apprehend targets because individuals entering courthouses are typically screened for weapons and other contraband.

“In such instances, ICE officers and agents make every effort to take the person into custody in a secure area, out of public view, but this is not always possible,” said ICE. And, according to the agency, its agents “will generally avoid enforcement actions in courthouses, or areas within, that are dedicated to non-criminal proceedings,” like family and small claims courts.

ICE also has a policy that undocumented family and friends who have accompanied an immigration enforcement target to court “will not be subject to civil immigration enforcement action” unless they interfere or pose a threat to public safety.

Guilt and innocence

Silva-Cacares’ attorney, Dennis Bradley, who is also a school board member, claimed ICE has been “repeatedly” targeting immigrants outside of the Bridgeport courthouse “who have minor criminal activity.”

ICE did not have statistics on its activities in Bridgeport. However, the agency said that ICE has nearly doubled its arrests in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, 2,834 versus 1,858.

The agency also maintains that, if there seems to be more ICE activity around courthouses nationally, that is because some local law enforcement agencies are not honoring requests to hold undocumented immigrants for pick up.

Besides Bradley, other local immigration attorneys also maintained there was ICE activity around Connecticut courthouses, though there was disagreement on whether it had increased recently or since Trump took office in January 2017.

“I’ve certainly heard of more people being picked up in the vicinity of a courthouse on the day they have a court hearing, but that’s anecdotal,” said Glenn Formica, a New Haven-based lawyer.

The Danbury State’s Attorney’s office was not aware of any such courthouse arrests since last April, when ICE took a man accused of drugging and raping a young girl into custody outside of Danbury Superior Court.

Stamford Public Defender Barry Butler said he was informed by a community activist that two court defendants were recently picked up outside of the courthouse, and that one was ultimately charged with failure to appear at court as a result.

Formica said in the past year he has been getting more phone calls from immigrants fearful of attending to court.

Rosario worries, too: “They could be going to court for a minor violation, and, due to the fear, now they’ll have missed an appearance and you’re going down a rabbit hole, adding charges.”

Alex Meyerovich, who practices immigration law in Bridgeport, claimed a client who had been charged with domestic violence and was going through a court-approved program that would have cleared his record, was picked up by ICE at the courthouse.

“I’m applying for the program, and upon completion I’m not guilty, but as far as ICE is concerned, they’re not going to await me to establish my guilt or innocence,” Meyerovich said.

Federal power

Meyerovich said attorneys could complain to the state Judicial Branch about ICE’s courthouse activities. But, he added, “As far as I’m concerned it’s a futile attempt. The Judicial Branch cannot do anything. The federal powers will supersede state powers.”

The Judicial Branch in a statement for this story wrote it expects ICE to comply with ICE’s stated guidelines for courthouses. And Chief Public Defender Christine Perra Rapillo did not respond to multiple phone calls seeking comment, though her predecessor last year had criticized ICE for causing “people to lose faith in the fairness of our criminal justice system.”

Former Bridgeport City Councilman John Olson voted last year for the “welcoming city” resolution. Olson said he too was troubled by ICE’s reported activity at Bridgeport Superior Court and that local police helped pursue a suspect.

“When we passed that resolution, Chief Perez said, ‘We’re not going to do anything like that’,” Olson said. He urged Perez and especially Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim, who is running for governor, to “stand up” and issue a strong statement.

Ganim’s office did not return requests for comment.

Formica said it would not matter: “ICE is more than free to go and pick anybody up from the courthouse steps that they want to.”

But, Meyerovich warned, Bridgeport leaders should try to do something to reassure the undocumented community.

“Bridgeport is heavily reliant on the immigrant community,” he said. “If immigrants start leaving, it’s not a pretty picture.”

Staff Writers Daniel Tepfer, John Nickerson and Dirk Perrefort contributed to this report.